A method for handling communication failures in a network, which includes provisioning first and second multipoint-to-multipoint communication services over respective first and second alternative sets of links that connect the endpoints in a network. Each of the sets connects network nodes which provide physical layer resources for the links. The communication service is provided to the endpoints over the first set of links using the first service. Upon detecting a failure in the first set of links, the physical layer resources of the links in the first set are deactivated by the network nodes, in order to lose their connections. Responding the loss of connection, the communication service automatically transfers communication to the second set of links.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A method for handling a communication failure in a network, comprising: provisioning different first and second instances of a multipoint-to-multipoint (MP-MP) communication service over respective first and second alternative sets of links that connect a plurality of endpoints in the network, each of the sets traversing a plurality of network nodes, which provide physical layer resources for operating the links; providing the communication service to the endpoints over the first set of links using the first instance; upon detecting a failure in the first set of links by a detecting node of the plurality of network nodes: propagating failure information by the detecting node to each node of the other nodes of the plurality of network nodes traversed by the first set of links; for each node of the other nodes of the plurality of network nodes traversed by the first set of links: receiving the failure information; and deactivating a physical layer of the first set of links connected thereto, thereby causing a loss of connectivity in the first set of links; and responsively to sensing the loss of connectivity, resuming the communication service over the second instance by automatically transferring communication among the endpoints to the second set of links.
2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the network comprises a ring network.
3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the communication service comprises a virtual private local area network service (VPLS), and wherein the first and second instances comprise first and second VPLS instances.
4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the communication service comprises a bridging service.
5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said propagating failure information comprises advertising the failure using an Opaque Link State Advertisement (LSA) message of an Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) protocol.
6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more of the links in the first set of links comprise optical links, and wherein said deactivating the physical layer resources comprises disabling respective laser sources of the optical links.
7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more of the links in the first set of links comprise wire links, and wherein said deactivating the physical layer resources comprises disabling respective carrier signals of the wire links.
8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more of the links in the first set of links use a physical layer auto-negotiation protocol, and wherein said deactivating the physical layer resources comprises introducing an auto-negotiation error into the auto-negotiation protocol.
9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more of the links in the first set of links comprise a logical link, and wherein said deactivating the physical layer resources comprises releasing an association of the logical link with the first instance of the communication service.
10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein a link of the first set of links is a critical link, and wherein said deactivating the physical layer is performed only when the failure occurs in the critical link.
11. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said provisioning different first and second instances of a multipoint-to-multipoint communication service over respective first and second alternative sets of links comprises sharing respective allocations of network resources reserved for communicating over the first and second sets of links.
12. The method of claim 1 , wherein a link in the first set of links includes an optical link, and wherein deactivating the physical layer includes disabling a laser source of the optical link.
13. The method of claim 1 , wherein a link in the first set of links includes a wire link, and wherein deactivating the physical layer includes disabling a carrier signal of the wire link.
14. The method of claim 1 , wherein a link in the first set of links includes a link which uses a physical layer auto-negotiation protocol, and wherein deactivating the physical layer includes introducing an auto-negotiation error into the auto-negotiation protocol.
15. The method of claim 1 , wherein a link in the first set of links includes a logical link, and wherein deactivating the physical layer includes releasing an association of the logical link with the first instance of the communication service.
16. A communication network serving a plurality of endpoints, the network comprising: a plurality of links, comprising at least first and second alternative sets of links that interconnect the endpoints via the network; and network nodes, which are traversed by the first and second sets of links and are arranged: to provide physical layer resources for operating the links; to provide a communication service to the endpoints over the first set of links using a first instance of the communication service; to detect a local failure in the first set of links; to propagate a first message notifying all other nodes in the network that are traversed by the first set of links upon detecting the local failure; and to receive a second message from another node indicating a remote failure in the first set of links; and responsively to receiving the second message indicating the remote failure, to deactivate the physical layer resources of each node to links in the first set of links connected to that node upon receiving the second message, to cause a loss of connectivity in the first set of links and thus cause an automatic transfer of communication among the endpoints to the second set of links, and to resume the communication service over the second set of links using a second instance of the communication service different from the first instance.
17. The network according to claim 16 , wherein a first network node is arranged to detect the failure and to send a third message indicating the failure to a second network node, and wherein a third network node, which provides the physical layer resources to links in the first set, is arranged to deactivate the physical layer resources responsively to accepting the third message.
18. The network according to claim 16 , wherein the one or more of the links in the first set of links comprise optical links, and wherein the network nodes comprise respective laser sources for driving the optical links and are arranged to deactivate the physical layer resources by disabling the laser sources.
19. The network according to claim 16 , wherein the one or more of the links in the first set of links comprise wire links, and wherein the network nodes are arranged to deactivate the physical layer resources by disabling respective carrier signals of the wire links.
20. The network according to claim 16 , wherein the one or more of the links in the first set of links use a physical layer auto-negotiation protocol, and wherein the network nodes are arranged to deactivate the physical layer resources by introducing an auto-negotiation error into the auto-negotiation protocol.
21. The network according to claim 16 , wherein a subset of the links in the first set of links are classified as critical links, and wherein the network nodes are arranged to deactivate the physical layer resources only when the failure occurs in one of the critical links.
22. The communication network of claim 16 , wherein a link in the first set of links includes an optical link, and wherein deactivating the physical layer resources includes disabling a laser source of the optical link.
23. The communication network of claim 16 , wherein a link in the first set of links includes a wire link, and wherein deactivating the physical layer resources includes disabling a carrier signal of the wire link.
24. The communication network of claim 16 , wherein a link in the first set of links includes a link which uses a physical layer auto-negotiation protocol, and wherein deactivating the physical layer resources includes introducing an auto-negotiation error into the auto-negotiation protocol.
25. The communication network of claim 16 , wherein a link in the first set of links includes a logical link, and wherein deactivating the physical layer resources includes releasing an association of the logical link with the first instance of the communication service.
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November 7, 2006
June 12, 2012
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